Sci-Fi Scarborough - 100 years of Jack Kirby

I'll be giving a Jack Kirby talk on "100 years of the King" in the Spa Complex Theatre at 2pm on Sunday 9th April at Sci-Fi Scarborough. See their website for more details.

Sci-Fi Scarborough has a great line up of film, TV and comic guests - including David Warner, Andrew Lee-Potts, Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Liza Ross, Gary Erskine... and me! Saturday 8th and 9th April, if you can come, you should.

"So you are into comics are you? Seriously?
Then you must not miss this chance to witness guest artist Russell Payne and his 100 Years of Kirby talk in the theatre at 2pm-3pm Sunday, an unmissable opportunity to hear about a guy who many say is as important as Stan Lee, if not more….
Author & artist Russell Payne (Jack Kirby Museum and Research Centre) presents a talk on Jack Kirby, arguably the most influential and prolific artist in the history of comics. His creations (Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, The Avengers, The X-Men, Fantastic Four) continue to dominate the entertainment industry one hundred years after his birth.
Find out more about his amazing life, his collaborations with Joe Simon and Stan Lee, his influence on George Lucas’ Star Wars, the story behind “Argo”, his cosmic epic “New Gods” and exactly who Ramon De Los Flores is.
Help celebrate the centenary of the King.
There will be no charge to attend this talk, all schedules subject to timing change."

Swindon Comiccon 2017

2017 Conventions

I'm at the following comic conventions/literature festivals in the coming months. If you'd like me as a guest at your comiccon/litfest, get in touch via the contact form on the right -->

This year is 100 years since Jack Kirby was born, so surely there's never been a better time for a Jack Kirby panel or talk.

4th March 2017
Hull Comicon Spring

Hull Guildhall

(formerly the Toad Man Festival)
I'll be giving a talk about Screenwriting.

8th/9th April 2017
SciFi Scarborough
I'll be giving a talk celebrating 100 years of the "King of Comics" - Jack Kirby.

2nd/3rd June 2017
Swindon Comic Con

11th June 2017
Trafford Park Comic Con
I'll be giving a talk celebrating 100 years of the "King of Comics" - Jack Kirby.

6th August 2017
Hull Comiccon

12th August 2017
Blackpool Comic Con

25th to 27th August 2017
London Super Comic Convention

16th September 2017
Southport Comic Con

For more details about my work see-
Literary Festivals Profile
Starburst magazine article
Recent digital work
Colouring work examples

Trevor Von Eeden - Make Mine Marvel Jam!

Rosie

I'm not an enormous fan of people baring every detail of their lives online, but I'm about to. I'm getting so many lovely messages and I'm struggling to keep up with them all, I don't want them to stop, I just wanted to explain to as many people at one time why I might be a little quiet for a while, why I might not reply to you straight away and what happened to cause this.

On Monday I had three beautiful daughters, now I have two. My middle child, Rosie, took her own life on Monday night. She was 19.

Rosie was a passionate, moody, delightfully contradictory, caring, TV-show-binging, protective, gorgeous, awesome teenager. When she was happy, she bounced off the walls with it, spreading an infectious glee, when she wasn't, she didn't. Her devotion to her dog, Darcy was beautifully intense, she was an evangelically militant vegan and she was better at nearly everything then she thought she was. Like so many teens, like so many people, she battled to adequately communicate her real feelings, many of our conversations revolved around sarcasm, hugs that had lasted forever when she was little now had to be stolen, but I hope she knew I always loved to be with her. Hiding away to watch a terrible movie together when we both should have been doing more productive things was a guilty pleasure I'd now give anything to do with her again just once. I miss her so much, I generally only cry at particularly poignant episodes of Dr Who. That moment when K-9 got rebuilt gets me every time. This is obviously a lot worse. I'm struggling. I'm having to drink more water to fund all of the tears, but I'll get there.

So I want people to know I'm going to be busy for a while giving my full attention to the needs of my lovely wife and daughters. I've lost one of the most important people in the world to me, and so if you are expecting me to meet a deadline/reply to an email/act rationally in the next few weeks, please accept my apologies, but it's even more unlikely to happen than usual.

Rosie hated having her photo taken, I have hundreds of family photos with everyone else smiling and then Rosie with a menu or a hand covering her face, these are the last few photos I took of my baby, there's one nice one where she has baked a (vegan) cake for my 24^th wedding anniversary. It was lovely, as was she.

I love you Rosebud. Hugs forever x

Rosie Elouise Payne - 1997-2016

People keep asking me if they can do anything, just asking is more than enough. If you are reading this and feeling you want to do something......one thing you can do for me - If you are fortunate enough to have people you love, stop spending time looking at this and go tell them right now, in person if you can, connect with them, hold them, kiss them, treasure them and remind yourself that every single moment you can spend with them is irretrievably precious.

If you were wanting to send flowers or anything like that, then please instead consider a donation to Rosie's favourite charity - Homeless Hounds at http://www.homelesshounds.org.uk

Keith Giffen Legion of Superheroes poster

I only helped stitch this together digitally, so it's a bit of a stretch even for me having my name alongside Keith Giffen & Larry Mahlstedt, but check out the original art for this amazing Legion of Superheroes poster on the comicartfans site.

Kirby-Vision - Jack Kirby 99th Anniversary Portrait Gallery

Jack Kirby would have been 99 on August 28th 2016. Next year will be the big 100, feels like people all over the world should be building statues or organising parades or something? The Kirby-Vision blog on the Jack Kirby Museum Website is running it's 99th anniversary Kirby Portrait Gallery and included one of my pieces in it (below), go have a look!

Upcoming things for me in the next few weeks -

28th September - BettaKultcha, Manchester
I'll be one of the speakers giving a slideshow presentation. Tickets £6

2nd October 2016 - Bridlington Comic Con 2016
I'm a guest at Bridlington's first comic convention. I'll also be giving a talk on Jack Kirby.

I've also been doing a little work with the tremendous Trevor Von Eeden, who recently did a frank and fascinating interview that you can read in full here on Comic Creator News. The never-ending process of writing a book with John Watson continues, we have high hopes of publication soon. Or at least a new blog entry with some really good interesting news on our latest disagreements.

I'm currently on holiday in the middle of nowhere, trying to relax while at the same time desperately trying to meet some writing deadlines .....and achieving neither. Nice to see a bit of countryside though.

This coming weekend (3rd/4th September) is the always excellent NICE comic convention in Bedford, easily one of the best line ups of guests with a real focus on comic art and writing. If you are a fan of current comics, it's probably the best chance to actually get up close and personal with a range of today's top creators in a friendly setting. I can't recommend it enough - Tickets still available here.